Activist meeting follows W.H. shift

Three days after President Barack Obama announced major changes to the administration’s deportation policy, the White House hosted 200 immigration activists Monday to discuss the administration’s efforts.

The all-day meeting, scheduled three weeks ago, featured panels — “Economic Case for Immigration Reform,” “Administrative Efforts to Strengthen the Immigration System” — of high-ranking officials from Justice, Commerce and Labor and the National Economic Council.

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Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Domestic Policy Director Cecilia Muñoz also addressed the group, as did John Morton, the director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Alejandro Mayorkas, the director of Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Gabriela Pacheco, a 27-year-old undocumented immigrant from Miami who is a project coordinator for United We Dream, an umbrella group supporting people whom the DREAM Act would cover, said she will feel the direct effect of Obama’s announcement.

A White House official said Pacheco did not enter the White House. She did attend an afternoon breakout session with Homeland Security officials Kelly Ryan and John Sandweg at a conference center across the street from the White House.

“I was proud to be there,” Pacheco said. “There have been other DREAMers, but here was one person who was directly effected by this issue, sitting at the table next to DHS officials voicing their concerns. To me, just sitting there made me a little teary-eyed. We’ve come a long way as a community.”

Pacheco, who came to the United States from Ecuador as a child, said the session was tense but cordial.

“There was a lot of mistrust in the room, but at the same time there was a sense of thankfulness that came with it because it was the president that made this announcement on Friday,” Pacheco said.

Most of the day was devoted to Friday’s announcement, said Jerry Gonzalez, the executive director of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials, who attended the session.

Gonzalez said officials told the group it was a coincidence the session – for which invites went out in May – took place on the first business day after Obama announced the change in deportation policy.

A senior White House official said the event was one of “dozens” of regular community leader briefings, a program run by the Office of Public Engagement.

There were also breakout sessions on, among other issues, how the administration will use prosecutorial discretion in immigration proceedings.

“It was a great meeting where there were a lot of questions answered and the administration making the case on Friday’s announcement they were going to step up and make sure it gets done right,” Gonzalez said.

Obama is scheduled to speak Friday to the annual conference of the National Association of Latino Elected Officials in Orlando, Fla.